Sanctus

When the sun burns out
it will take 8 minutes and 19 seconds
for mankind to know
because that is how long it takes
for light to reach the earth.
We move to the rise and fall of the little jazz mass-
the shadowy smoke of faded incense drifts up
from beneath the hot New Mexican sun. The children here
dream in warm browns, burnt oranges, and powder blues
of terra-cotta castles and that old church on the side of the highway-

Chimayo. We pray
for these hopeful copper-faced children
and the way in which they see the world:
bright, alive, gasping.

That was the year
the blue-lipped winter bore a new weight
and crackled like electric sparks.
We remember the ghost of his touch now
and wonder where we will be
in those 8 minutes and 19 seconds.

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Editor’s Note

The number one question our editors receive is—what do the editors and judges look for when judging the contest? The number one answer we give is creativity. Unlike prose, writing composed in everyday language, poetry is considered a creative art and requires a different type of effort and a certain level of depth. Of the thousands of poems entered in each contest, the ones that catch our judges’ eyes are the ones that remove us, even just slightly, from the scope of everyday life by using language that is interesting, specific, vivid, obscure, compelling, figurative, and so on. Oftentimes, poems are pulled aside for a second look based simply on certain words that intrigued the reader. So first and foremost, be sure your poetry is written using creative language. Take general ideas and make them personal. In his infamous book De/Compositions: 101 Good Poems Gone Wrong, W. D. Snodgrass imparts, “We cannot honestly discuss or represent our lives, any more than our poems, without using ideational language.”